Sure, we all Can’t Feel Our Face When I’m With You, but have you ever stopped to wonder exactly what other The Weekend lyrics you or the impressionable young mind sitting in the passenger seat is hummingflubbing along with? Clyfford Stumme, The Popstar Professor, to the rescue! In this new post-fact era, I appreciate his desire to seek out meaning and understanding in the sounds that surround us every day.

The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) – what better way to take a weeklong vacation (of the mind) – a mere bridge away, without jet lag? Enjoy this glorious far-ranging exploration of independent filmsfr around the world before they hit the big screen (some can only be seen here). Meet & interact with actors, directors, writers from the films and get a deeper understanding of the process. Highlights I recommend:

Loving – (how did I not know about this case?) Everyone should see this drama about the real life couple living in 1967 Virginia, whose fight to stay together led to the seminal Supreme Court decision invalidating the prohibition of interracial marriage. With rising MAJOR STAR Ruth Negga and a surprisingly nuanced performance fr Joel Edgerton.

Two of my absolute favorite reads this year were connected via the same book reading event in Richmond Point. Frances Dinkelspiel’s Tangled Vines– a riveting account of the origins of California’s winemaking history as told through the lens of the notorious 2005 arson case that destroyed 4.5M bottles of wine; and Elizabeth Roesner’s Electric City– an upstate New York story of the origins of electricity and the convergence of three different elements within that society, and their effects on subsequent generations.

ART: What a year! The Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) – Larry Rinder’s stellar inaugural year re-opened in the Center St. location. Check out the free weekly Wed @ noon lecture series coming up Big Ideas: with Natasha Boas and be sure to grab a bite upstairs at the always stellar & delicious Babette.

“During the twelve days, between Christmas and Epiphany, God permits the dead to walk. This is well known.” King Henry VIII to Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

As fortune had it, I came to this page just yesterday and took pause to remember all the greats we lost this past year – David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Alan Rickman, Zaha Hadid, Gene Wilder, Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, Bill Cunningham, Muhammed Ali…to name just a few. The list felt heavier than usual this past year. If only we could have had them a little bit longer. Hug your loved ones close.